In the context of this year’s Alpbach technology talks, the Province of Salzburg showed that it offers not only one of the most beautiful places to live, but also a concentrated future competence: the economy, research and education are well prepared for a world with increasing digital possibilities and related questions.

This was demonstrated by Landeshauptmann Wilfried Haslauer as well as representatives from the three areas at the Salzburg Science and Innovation Meeting on digital Salzburg in the Alpbach technology talks.

“Information and communication technologies are already of enormous importance for Salzburg as a business location,” said Landeshauptmann Haslauer. “That is why this area is one of five development focal points, which Salzburg has defined in the science and innovation strategy 2025 – WISS.”

Through new training centers, company qualification and cooperative research projects, digitization will in the future be a sign for Salzburg. As a solid foundation and plan for implementation, the country has developed the innovation and research master plan ICT Salzburg. The first projects are already being implemented with the coordination of the ITG and the cooperation of all stakeholders at the site. One of these projects is the 5G laboratory for IT reliability:

5G: IT reliability on the test

The IT research institute Salzburg Research is developing software tools and methods in the 5G laboratory to measure the reliability of 5G for critical applications. This allows a neutral evaluation of the availability of networks independent of the network operator.

5G, the fifth generation of mobile radio networks, will be available from 2020 onwards. It will enable innovative applications in the fields of automotive, production, energy and entertainment. With 5G, wireless communication will provide not only very high data rates in the gigabit range for the first time, but also low delay, high scalability and high reliability.

The reliability of communication will play an essential role: “In applications such as Industry 4.0, Smart Grids or Car2Car communication, a short-term loss of communication can lead to high costs in the form of production losses and blackouts,” says Siegfried Reich, Managing Director of Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft , “The real-time availability of a network of 99.9 percent means that the communication is not available for 8.76 hours per year, which is unacceptable for critical applications.”

The 5G-laboratory at Salzburg Research is supported by BMVIT and Land Salzburg.